EJ had officially left to get back to school and Soul was in her room, trying to figure out what to wear for Gina's Halloween party.

"Hey. you bout ready to head out?" Maddox asked, stepping into the girl's room to see clothes piled on her floor as clothes were being tossed from the closet. "Woah, it looked like a tornado hit."

"I don't know what to wear." Soul cried out, stepping out of her closet in mixed match clothing letting out a sigh.

"What happened to the Little Red costume you were planning on wearing?" Maddox questioned.

"It was way too big." Soul explained, falling backwards onto her bed. "Now I have nothing. You guys can just go ahead without me."

"And let you spend the rest of your birthday here sulking because you didn't go to the party." Maddox guessed, shaking her head as she took a step closer to the pile of clothes. "I don't think so. I'm sure we can put something together with all these clothes."

Maddox got to work, tossing clothes left and right as Soul watched her intrigued from her bed.

"Here, put this on." Maddox spoke, standing back up, pushing stuff into the girl's arms. "You can say you're Mrs. Smith or something."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me just yet." Maddox advised, turning the girl around before pushing her towards her bathroom. "Now get dressed and meet us downstairs. You have 20 minutes."

Soul nodded, giving her an appreciative smile before quickly making her way into the bathroom.

The girl quickly changed and she didn't hate it; she actually really liked it.

After fixing her hair and putting a bit of makeup on, the girl was set and ready to go.

The girl raced down the stairs to find Maddox and Jet dressed and waiting by the door.

"I did good." Maddox smirked, nodding her head in approval.

"Yeah, yeah you look good. Can we go now?" Jet questioned, pointing to the door, causing Maddox to roll her eyes.

"Come on, so you can see your little girlfriend." Soul teased, causing Maddox to laugh as the pair made their way out the door.

"I don't have a girlfriend!" Jet mumbled, closing the door behind him. "Wait did Kourtney say something about me?"

...

"Happy Halloween!" Maddox happily exclaimed, leading the group up the stairs.

"What's up?" Jet greeted with a smile.

"Happy Birthday, Soul!" Everyone exclaimed.

"Thanks, guys." Soul grinned, giving the dancers by the stairs hugs.

"Wow! You look great!" Ashlyn blurted out, looking at Maddox as the trio approached her, Gina and Carlos. "Was I yelling?"

"Um what are you guys?" Carlos questioned, turning to the trio.

"Have you not seen Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings?" Jet questioned, pointing between himself and Maddox, causing Carlos and Gina to shake their heads.

"Yeah, okay, well, we're gonna need to fix that, because Michelle Yeoh." Maddox chucked before glancing at Ashlyn's costume. "Oh, hey! Hot Eleanor Roosevelt."

"You got that?" Ashlyn happily asked. "Of course you got that!"

"How did she get that?" Soul whispered to Jet, causing him to shrug.

"And Soul you look amazing." Gina beamed, causing the girl to smile. "Are you Mrs. Smith?"

"I am!" Soul chuckled, looking down at her costume. "Maddox picked it out. I was originally gonna be little red but it didn't really work out so here we are."

"Well you look hot!" Carlos gushed.

"Let's get this starty parted!" Ricky exclaimed, running up the stairs before quickly making his way back down. "Let me come in again, sorry."

"Oh, is he okay?" Carlos questioned.

"Well, he's definitely not Batman." Gina muttered, glancing over at Soul and Ashlyn.

"Bowen as Baywatch." Ashlyn spoke.

"Very Ricky of him." Soul added, nodding her head along with Ashlyn.

"Okay, is this like a Zac Efron deep cut?" Gina questioned as the Bowen boy made his way over to the group.

"I literally cannot wait to explain this to you." Ricky spoke as the doorbell rang, causing Gina to get excited.

"Oh, my gosh, I think that's our first trick-or-treat!" Gina shrieked, quickly grabbing the candy bucket as she made her way to the stairs.

"In the attic?" Carlos questioned.

"I made signage." Gina explained, causing the group to shrug as a person wearing a pumpkin mask made their way into the room. "Hello!"

"Hey, little tall guy." Ricky hesitantly greeted as the pumpkin boy made his way toward the group. "Where's your candy bag? Buddy?"

"Are you lost?" Soul asked but the person behind the mask didn't speak.

They stopped once they came face to face with Carlos, holding out the piece of candy they grabbed from Gina's bucket.

"Oh." Carlos nervously chuckled, hesitantly grabbing the candy before the pumpkin turned and walked away. "I'm scared!"

"Why exactly do you smell like a french fry, Bowen?" Soul questioned, looking over at the Bowen boy before he nervously chuckled.

"Funny thing, Miss Jenn said the same thing. It's a long story..." Ricky trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck before holding his arms wide open. "But Happy Birthday!"

...

Soul was standing talking with Carlos and Ashlyn when Gina approached the group with a polaroid camera.

"Smile!" Gina exclaimed, causing the group to quickly pose for the camera. "There we go! Now one with the birthday girl."

The duo put their heads together, grinning at the camera as Soul did a quick peace sign.

"I love it!" Gina gushed, showing the Walker girl the picture.

"Aw, look at us. Okay, let me take a picture of it." Soul pulled out her phone, taking a quick picture of the polaroid.

"What is that?" Carlos questioned, quickly grabbing the girl's hand, inspecting the new piece of jewelry on the girl's left ring finger. "Isn't she a beauty!"

"That is beautiful." Gina said, grabbing the girl's hand next. "Was it a birthday gift?"

"It was... from EJ." Soul softly spoke, causing Gina and Carlos to share a grin before letting out a squeal.

"Is that what I think it is?" Carlos exclaimed, causing the girl to quickly nod.

"EJ got you a promise ring!" Gina bursted with excitement. "That's so adorable!"

"Now if that's not love I don't know what is." Carlos proclaimed, causing Gina to nod in agreement as Soul blushed.

"Hey, I'm gonna go talk to Ricky." Gina spoke, causing the other two to nod before Gina pulled Soul into a tight hug. "Eek! I'm so happy for you!"

The duo shared one last smile before Gina made her way over to the curly haired boy.

"What's this we hear about a ring?" Ashlyn appeared with Maddox and Jet.

"Look what your cousin gave our girl!" Carlos presented, holding the girl's hand up to the group, making Ashlyn's jaw drop as she grabbed the girl's hand.

"Wow." Ashlyn muttered out.

"Wow is right." Maddox agreed.

"Isn't that Mack?' Jet spoke, glancing towards the stairs to find it was indeed the Alana boy.

"Mack!"

"Hey, everyone! It's nice to see you all outside of set." Mack grinned. "Ashlyn, Carlos, Maddox, Jet, right? Soul lovely to see you again."

"Mack." Soul muttered, sending the boy a fake smile.

"And, of course, the hostess with the mostest, Gina." Mack turned his attention to the Porter girl.

"He knows our name!" Carlos and Ashlyn whisper squealed.

"I don't think that's entirely a good thing." Soul mumbled, causing the four teens to look over at the girl, causing her to shrug. "Just saying."

Ashlyn and Carlos shrugged as Jet snuck away from the group towards the punch bowl.

"The party is here!" Kourtney exclaimed, making a grand entrance.

"Kourtney!"

"Oh my god. The queen of looks has finally arrived and she's wearing a sweatshirt." Carlos trailed off, looking at the other three. "Call 911."

"Wait! That says Harvard. Did you choose Harvard?" Ashlyn excitedly asked, causing Carlos and Soul's jaw to drop.

'No, no, no. Not yet." Kourtney quickly shot it down. "I've actually brought all eight of the Ivy sweatshirts and I will be trying them on until I find one that feels like home."

"You guys have got to stop doing this to me!" Soul cried, letting out a chuckle, causing the others to laugh.

"Sorry. Happy Birthday, girl." Kourtney excitedly said, pulling the girl into a tight hug, making her chuckle.

"Hey, Kourtney." Jet greeted, gaining the group's attention, causing Soul and Maddox to share a look before lifting their cups to their mouths as they watched the boy. "What a flattering sweatshirt you're wearing. Is that fabric?"

"It's a cotton-poly blend." Kourtney answered, letting out a chuckle.

"Oh! Nice!" Jet responded before it became an awkward silence between the two.

"I'm gonna go mingle." Kourtney announced, giving the boy a high five before she made her way towards Caden.

"Jetty's got a crush." Carlos teased, poking the boy.

"I do not." Jet nervously chuckled.

"Is that fabric?" Soul mocked, causing Maddox and Carlos to chuckle as Jet rolled his eyes.

"People, I will be reading tarot cards in five minutes." Ashlyn announced. "Please make an orderly pentagram."

Causing the group to make their way to the floor near everyone else.

"Hey Soul." Ricky called, touching the girl's arm, causing her to turn and look at the boy with a smile.

"Richard, what's up?" Soul grinned, causing the boy to playfully roll his eyes before pulling out an envelope from his pocket, holding it out to the girl. "What's this?"

"Think of it as a birthday gift." Ricky shrugged.

"But I didn't get you anything for yours." Soul softly spoke, looking from the envelope to the boy.

"Well then think of it as a peace offering for the restart of our friendship." Ricky smiled, causing the girl to hesitate before grabbing it.

"Thank you." Soul accepted the envelope, sending the boy a small smile.

"You don't even know what it is." Ricky chuckled.

"I know but I'm grateful for anything." Soul confessed, slowly opening the envelope pulling out a folded piece of paper, causing a grin to grow across the girl's face. "You are such a liar!"

"I was going through some things the other day and found it tucked away in an old notebook." Ricky explained as the Walker girl read over the list.

🎥

Ricky, East High Senior

Okay so that may have been a complete lie. I knew exactly where the list was but I wanted the moment to be special when I gave it to her. I mean our friendship has been rocky this past year and i wanted to show her that I meant it when I said our friendship meant the world to me.

🎥

"Join a club." Soul chuckled, reading the list out loud. "Tell ghost stories. HSM Marathon. Most of these things aren't even crossed off."

"Well we still have the rest of senior year." Ricky pointed out, causing Soul to look up. "That's what? 6 months. That's plenty of time."

"You want to finish the list?" Soul questioned, causing the boy to shrug. "Nini's not even here."

"I'm sure she shouldn't wouldn't mind if we finished the last couple of things without her." Ricky said, grabbing the list from the Walker girl as he pulled out a pen from his pocket, crossing out Nini's name. "Now it's 'Ricky and Soul's 15 Things To Before High School Ends.' So what do you say? You up for the challenge?"

The girl was quiet for a minute before a smile grew on her face as she nodded, "You're on, Bowen."

"You, me and this list, after opening night." Ricky declared, causing the girl to nod.

"Sounds like a plan."

"What's a plan?" Gina asked, approaching the duo with a smile.

"I'll tell you later." Ricky spoke, causing the Porter girl to smile at the boy. "Try this again?"

"I'll be over there." Soul said, sending the couple a warm smile before making her way over to the others, taking a seat on the floor behind Jet and Kourtney.

"Hey, Wildcats!"

The group turned their heads, finding Dani standing at the top of the stairs dressed as Gabriella; specifically Gabriella from HSM3.

"Kourtney, my bestie of the week." Dani greeted, causing the girl to quickly stand up. "Wait, did you go to Princeton?"

"Girl, I'm in high school."

"Yes, I know what order people go to school." Dani spoke before turning and making her way to the back towards Gina and Ricky. "Ricky! Hey!"

"Dani, you remember Gina?" Ricky questioned, motioning towards the girl beside him.

"My switcheroo. Love that for us." Dani answered, causing Gina to let out a confused chuckle. "Okay, who are you right now? Because it's not what we talked about."

"We didn't..."

"Wait. Did you go as a different Zac Efron movie?" Dani asked, looking at the boy's costume. "Are you giving... 17 Again?"

"Okay, what is even happening?"

"Let's begin!" Ashlyn exclaimed, gaining everyone's attention.

"Hi." Carlos greeted, looking over at the unknown person, wearing the Pumpkin costume. "I'm sorry, do you go to North High or something?"

"Doesn't seem like they're much of a talker." Soul said, causing the pumpkin to slowly turn and look at her, making her quickly look away. "Definitely not a talker."

"Okay." Ashlyn trailed off before looking back at the group sitting in front of her. "These tarot cards are very special. They were a gift from the Madam Stephanie, my psychic and life coach, who is currently accepting new clients. She asked me to tell you that... Are we all here? Well, hang on. Where's Maddox?"

"I think she went to go check the fuse box." Jet spoke. "Something about a light flickering."

"Uh, I hope not. That fuse box is really old." Gina explained.

The lights began flickering before the sound of Maddox's screams filled the house before the lights went out, causing the group to scream.

"It's fine, it's fine, it's fine. Just..." Ashlyn reassured the group as the lights came back on.

"Maddie!" Soul exclaimed, noticing the girl standing at the back with smoke coming from her standing up hair before she went crashing to the ground, causing everyone to quickly jump up.

"Oh, my god! What do we do?" Ricky panicked, causing the Caswell girl to rush past everyone as she fell to her knees beside the girl.

"Call an ambulance! I'll do mouth-to-mouth as a friend!"

"Boo." Maddox opened her eyes, causing Ashlyn to scream as she jumped backwards.

"Wow. That was a good one." Ricky admitted.

"The Woman in the Woods could never." Carlos chuckled.

"I felt like I owed you all a good scare after the legend of Susan Fine kinda crashed and burned." Maddox explained, doing a double take at the girl beside her. "Hey, Ash, you okay?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"Ash, are-are you crying?" Soul pointed out.

"Why would I be crying? It was humorous! These are laugh tears! Shall we begin?" Ashlyn forced, quickly making her way back to the stairs, causing everyone to retake their seats. "Okay. Please remember I am new at this and it's just for fun. Okay. Ooh. This first card is... Death."

"Present." Carlos held his hand up.

"Actually, the Death card means something in one's life is ending." Ashlyn explained.

"Okay. You don't have to hit me over the head with it. Seb and I are over."

"Could be for me, though. Mad and Mad are... bad."

"And although Gina and I haven't officially declared what we are yet, there's definitely something special happening here." Mack announced, causing the group to turn and look back at the boy.

"Sorry, what now?" Ricky demanded.

"Just check my TikTok at midnight and see what's up."

"What is this? Some kinda of Halloween prank?" Ricky looked at Gina.

"Yeah! Let's go with that. Yeah."

"Well, I'll tell you what's not a prank." Dani stood up from her seat. "I am thrilled to be stepping into the role of Gabriella in East High's production of HSM3, alongside my forever Zac Efron, Ricky with the good hair."

"Wait! What?" Carlos said.

"G's not playing Gabriella anymore?" Soul asked, confused.

"You didn't tell everyone the plan?" Dani looked at Ricky.

"Hey... It seems the cards have awoken some demons." Ashlyn spoke.

"I'm kicked out of the show?"

"No, no. This was supposed to be a favor." Ricky explained. "I-I wanted to talk to you in private, but it's a good thing."

"How is it a good thing to be fired from a show?"Gina nervously laughed.

"She has a point." Dani agreed.

"Please, just stay out of this. G, you work until 9:00 p.m. every night, you're up before school to film this movie. Honestly, I thought you'd be relieved. And I'm not the one who's supposed to be posting a selfie at midnight with Mack!"

"Hey! That's just a stunt."

"A stunt is a dog making spaghetti."

"That wasn't a stunt. He really did that." Mack chimed in, rising from his seat.

"No one really asked." Soul spoke, sending the Alana boy a sarcastic smile.

"Okay, okay. Look." Kourtney spoke up. "I'm the queen of functional anxiety and even I think you guys are taking this a little too far. Troy and Gabriella are characters, not a real couple."

"Well..." Ricky trailed off, glancing at Gina, causing the girl to grab his hand.

"What?!"

"We are a couple, and I don't really wanna hide anymore because we know we can get through anything." Gina announced, causing Soul to smile. "Right, Ricky?"

"Yeah. Ricky kissed the girl, causing the Wildcats to cheer.

"I am so glad this is out in the open." Jet admits.

"Me and you too, Cuz." Soul chuckled, looking over at the couple. "Pretending I didn't know was getting pretty exhausting."

"This party... this party sucks." Dani stormed out.

"Knock, Knock." Ms. Porter said, making her way up the stairs. "Did I hear screaming?"

"No, just fun and games with my buddies." Gina awkwardly said.

"Yeah. plus me." Ricky said, tapping the woman's arm.

"Plus you?"

"Ricky. I don't think you two have ever met but he's... a classmate and a dear friend." Gina announced, causing the Wildcats to share a look as Ricky's smile disappeared.

"Well, just try to keep it down. Sister Connie has some very elderly neighbors."

"You got it, Mom."

"Hi dear." Ms. Porter smiled at the Walker girl. "I heard it was your birthday, happy birthday."

"Thank you, Ms. P." Soul sent the woman a smile before she made her way back down the stairs.

"You haven't told her about me?" Ricky asked, turning to the girl but she couldn't get the words out, causing her to storm out.

"Hey, Ricky, wait!"

"It was a nice reading." Carlos spoke up.

"Thank you." Ashlyn spoke with the box before closing it.

...

"Hey." Soul softly spoke, taking a seat beside the girl on the stairs.

"Hey." Gina muttered barely above a whisper, shuffling through her polaroids.

"Uh... I'm pretty sure everyone left. Well, except Ash, she's still up in your room." Soul explained.

"Thanks." Gina smiled lightly. "Do you think he'll ever talk to me?"

"Who, Ricky?" Soul asked, causing Gina to look over at her as she nodded. "Of course, he will. I think he just needs a little time, you know, to figure things out."

"So you think it's over too." Gina sadly looked down.

"Oh, definitely not." Soul shook her head, placing a hand on the girl's knees. "That boy is crazy about you, G. In all my life of knowing Ricky Bowen, you have been the only girl he has willingly waited for. I mean if any other girl would have asked him to secretly date he would've been out the door a long time ago."

"How do you and EJ make it look so easy?" Gina asked. "I mean even with long distance you guys seem so happy and make everything work. You guys are literally perfect."

"There's no such thing as a perfect or easy relationship." Soul spoke, shaking her head. "I mean yeah, we are great and in a good place now. But it hasn't always been so easy.  We live in two entirely different places and miss each other like crazy every single day. There have even been times where I question myself, like 'is it worth being apart from the person I love." Then I remember 'I love him and I couldn't imagine seeing myself with anyone else, so I'm willing to make sacrifices in order to keep this relationship.'"

"I never knew that." Gina said, looking over at the girl, causing Soul to send her a small smile.

"That's because it's the only thing I don't talk to you about." Soul joked, causing them both to chuckle as Gina wiped her eyes.

"I mean, like I know I've been super occupied with the movie and everything but that doesn't mean I couldn't do the musical too." Gina rambled. "And I understand he's trying to look out for me and that's super sweet of him but I would have liked some say in what happens to me."

"I think that's something you need to talk to him about." Soul explained, causing the Porter girl to nod. "Come here."

Soul wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulders, causing Gina to place her head on the Walker girl's shoulder as she let out a deep breath she didn't realize she was holding in.

...

The Costume :

The Ring (sorry I forgot to post it last chapter) :

The list: